Firebrand deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini told a press conference in Moscow he would work to ensure sanctions imposed by the EU after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 are lifted.

Rebellious Hungary and the current incumbents of the European Council’s rotating presidency are mounting pressure on the Brussels leadership to do more business with Moscow.

Mr Salvini hopes the process can be kickstarted through “good manners, numbers and the art of democracy”, however, is happy to go further than his predecessors and is “not scared” of using vetoes to force the situation.

The League leader expressed his willingness to see Russia brought back into the “European family” and praised Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s Helsinki summit as a “wonderful start” to the process.

He had held talks with ministers and executives in the Russian capital, without giving any further details on the discussions.

The Italian said: “We hope we will be able to convince other governments with democracy and convincing numbers.

“Vetoes are only a last resort but I am not excluding anything.”

Brussels imposed sanctions on Russia and kicked it out of the G8 group of leading nations in response to the country’s actions in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

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